Party of Progress led by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has passed the first stage of registration at the Ministry of Justice

Alexei Navalny

MOSCOW, February 28, 14:03 /ITAR-TASS/. Party of Progress led by Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has passed the first stage of registration at the Ministry of Justice, the party’s lawyer Dmitri Krainev told Itar-Tass on Friday.

“We now need to register regional branches. There are 46 of them. We need at least 42 of them to have registered. Then we shall be able to file a registration application at the ministry again,” he added.

For the party to be fit for the election in autumn, the registration process should be completed by mid-June. Krainev is not completely sure if the party will succeed in doing so. Although the documents are impeccable and the party’s activists will submit them on Monday, there can be no certainty, as officials “tend to find faults” and the party may have to resubmit documents again.